


Bleach drabbles

by jamjar



Category: Bleach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-08
Updated: 2006-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-09 21:13:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13489893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamjar/pseuds/jamjar





	1. Iconorific meme for bravecows, Bleach, gen

  
  
1) home

The Kurosaki family library is a mess, in spite of the best efforts of Yuzu, and even occasionally Ichigo and Karin, to impose some kind of order on it. It exists in that careful state of equilibrium where it's used so much by so many people that it can never be really tidy, but it's used too much to allow it to descend into complete chaos. The shelves only have enough space as long as a certain number of books are in use, by people's bedsides, in the kitchen or Ichigo's school bag. This is only partially successful, and there are stacks around it that are always on the verge of tipping over, but also provide useful surfaces to store your cup on, stationary and, of course, more books.

There are endless piles of manga and novels, which are kept or taken to the second-hand book shop. Cook books in Japanese, and even a few in English and Spanish with small pencil translations of ingredients and occasional instructions next to them, mostly in Ichigo's precise handwriting. Scraps of newspaper and receipts are used as makeshift bookmarks, along with snapshots. The Kurosaki family doesn't have much in the way of photo albums; what pictures they have (and they have a lot), are stored in drawers, stuck on the fridge or hung on the wall, and more usually, between the pages of whatever book needed a bookmark

Isshin keeps his old medical text books in here, the precise terminology reassuringly obscure. He keeps snapshots of Masaki between the pages, tucked in at random. Her on their wedding day, the two of them celebrating a few nights before (keep that one tucked away where the kids can't find it, here in this volume on liver disease), all five of them together at the park, just enough to make him smile when he's looking up symptoms or checking side-effects.

More. If he leafs through one of Yuzu's recipe books, he can find a shot of Masaki and himself holding a newborn Ichigo, between a recipe on turkey mole and chicken in beer. Ichigo's maths textbook from last year, on the shelf waiting for Yuzu and Karin to catch up, has Masaki and the girls standing guard at the index.

He can sit at his desk, drink his tea (kocha, milk and two sugars, because that's how Masaki made it for herself and oh, but he needed that reminder of taste sometimes), open a book and there! A picture of her, just as a surprise, like catching a glimpse of her through a window.

 

 

 

  
2) hospital

"Got you something to read," Ichigo says. "My dad says people heal better if they're entertained." He tosses it at Byakuya who catches it with one hand. "It's just one of Orihime's books that she bought along in case she got bored," he explains.

The cover is bright and ambiguous. A pretty girl or, perhaps, a pretty boy looks boldly at the front, arms crossed and grinning. Byakuya is-- not bemused, not quite, but uncertain. The world has shifted, the careful lines damaged irreparably.

The feeling is not as terrible as he once thought it would be. "She was aware of your mission before you began it?" Byakuya says. "Most people do not begin an invasion anticipating boredom." If she had, on first impressions, it could be attributed to foolish naivety, but experience could also have lead her to that conclusion.

Ichigo shrugs. "She got some books for Rukia as well. Your sister," he adds, as if Byakuya might have forgotten. "Not that she's had much free time to read them, not that that's stopped her…"

Rukia took to reading like a fish to water. She would unearth books long unread and Byakuya can picture her hands, the ritualistic way she would lay the book down and the cup of tea next to it, just so on the saucer, and then grow careless with both as she read. Appalling books, melodrama and ghost stories without the slightest basis in fact.

"She's got really bad taste in books. Stuff Orihime would be embarrassed to read," Ichigo says. He sits on the windowsill awkwardly. "I--" he looks embarrassed and then reaches into his shirt and throws him another book.

The cover is lurid, the monster unlikely, even by the standards of Soul Society. Byakuya turns the book over to read the back.

Ichigo coughs. "I thought it might run in the family," he says.

Byakuya's fingers stroke the slick cover. 585 yen. _Melisande, an innocent maiden, receives a strange letter, inviting her to a mysterious castle in…_

"Amazingly bad taste," Ichigo says. "Really, really bad."

"I know," Byakuya says. And, because he feels it owes it, because it is a painful relief to be able to say these things after so long, he adds, "Her sister, Hisana, was the same way."


	2. jamjar | Drabblememe for girl_starfish, Bleach, Orihime and Tatsuki.

"You look good," Tatsuki says, and by good she means "Good", but she knows she also means "different" and "tougher" and "older".

"Thank you!" Orihime flexes her arms. "Look at my muscles!" She puts her elbow on the table. "Let's arm-wrestle."

Tatsuki could probably circle Orihime's arm with her fingers. She rolls her eyes. "Forget it. I'm hungry. Did you get any of those little purin things from that bakery?"

Orihime nods and sets out tea. She talks about school, about the people she saw over the summer, mostly familiar names and some not, and Tatsuki is used to Orihime's style of speech enough to construct a reasonable understanding of it. She met people, who might have been friends of Ichigo or not, and she spent time with people, and possibly did some charity work, and Ishida-kun helped with that and also made her an outfit, which means that he likes Rukia, probably, and...

Orihime gestures as she talks and when she raises her arms, Tatsuki can see that her waist is thinner, pared down of it's normal slight softness, and there are the faint lines of stomach muscles. Whatever she did -and Tatsuki knows Orihime's style of speech well enough to know when she's deliberately concealing things, skipping over and jumping past bits- it was work. Tatsuki knows the product of physical labour.

She waits until Orihime's stopped speaking long enough for Tatsuki to ask, "Was it a good holiday, then?"

Orihime frowns a little, thinking about it. "Yes. It was a good summer." A sharp little nod that makes her hair fall forward and Tatsuki pushes it back for her.

"But I'm happy to be back," Orihime says, smiling brightly.

Tatsuki smiles back and talks about her summer.


	3. jamjar | drabblememe for molly_goblin, Bleach, gen, Gin and Izuru, pre-series.

  
[](http://molly-goblin.livejournal.com/profile)[**molly_goblin**](http://molly-goblin.livejournal.com/) asked for Ichimaru Gin/Kira Izuru.

No warnings needed, really.

Many shinigami, especially the ones new to their sword, touch it without thinking. Kira does not, which worries him sometimes. Hinamori rests her hand on the hilt when she's thinking, balancing her palm on the very top. Renji strokes his, something which Kira has noted and commented on loudly, and in public, and -even better- in front of Kuchiki Rukia, just to see Renji go red when she laughs at him.

He's even seen the captains do it sometimes. His Gin Ichimaru touches it lightly, tap-tap-tapping out a rhythm when he's thinking something. It should be a tell, except that it's impossible to know what that man is thinking, ever.

He'll have to learn, now that he's been made his second -second to Gin Ichimaru! Vice-captain of the third division- learn to know his Captain as well as the other seconds know theirs.

Kira doesn't pet his, not like that, but he is, as always, comforted by the weight of it against his, especially in moments like this. He kneels in front of his new captain and clears his throat. "Thank you," Kira says. "For--" He gestures at his badge. "I know others might be--"

"Ah, no need to thank me," his captain says, smiling -of course smiling. "With Hinamori in one and Aburai Renji in another, I couldn't pick anyone else, could I? Leave you behind while your friends go up ahead..." He lowers his head to whisper in Kira's ear. "Besides, you can keep an eye on them better from here, right?" He pats Kira's shoulder. "It's good to be able to watch out for your friends."

Kira nods and smiles back, awkwardly, but again, more determined as his captain's inscrutable smile seems it brighten. He doesn't have to understand his captain. Sometimes, following is a matter of faith.

Gin's smile widens


End file.
